Michael Shabaz is by all accounts an impressive tennis player. His no-holds-bar serve is difficult for opponents to return effectively, as they instead frequently scuff the ball into the net or launch it into the stands. Although serious and driven on the court, the Virginia sophomore loves to make jokes with his doubles partner, senior Dominic Inglot.\n"We were joking about it the whole year - winning a national title in doubles," Shabaz said. "We just felt like we were one of the most talented teams out there."\nAlthough Inglot may have injected a bit of his British humor into the conversation, it is hard to imagine him being amused by the serious prospect of winning a doubles title.\nPutting aside the unlikely scenario in which Shabaz and Inglot laughed at the thought of achieving such a goal, the doubles tandem made the dream a reality when the pair defeated No. 2-seed Davey Sandgren and John-Patrick Smith of Tennessee in the Ncs in May.\n"Both did not play their best tennis in the singles championships but continued to battle and persevere," Virginia coach Brian Boland said. "They started off the year as our No. 2 doubles team and continued to get better ... They deserve so much credit for showing such confidence and resilience, especially under the circumstances they were under."\nAfter dropping the first set, 5-7, against Ole Miss' top doubles team in the round of 32, the pair's title chances were on the verge of slipping away. The Cavaliers took the second set, 6-3, though, and secured the victory when Shabaz served out the match to take the third set, 6-4.\n"That first match was as tight as could be," Shabaz said. "We broke a 4-all set, and I think once we won that, we kind of felt like our draw was wide open after that ,,, We kind of felt like we could just run with the title."\nThe doubles tandem cruised through the next two rounds against Texas Tech and Pepperdine, winning each match in straight sets to wind up in a semifinal matchup against the North Carolina duo of Clay Donato and Taylor Fogleman. The two teams already had squared off three times previously this season, with the Tar Heel tandem taking the regular season and NCAA Regional matches, 8-5 and 8-3, respectively. The lone victory for Inglot and Shabaz came in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament, during which the pair snatched an 8-3 victory en route to a 4-0 rout of the Tar Heels .\n"When you play somebody over and over, both teams have a feel for each other, but at the same time it's a guessing game - who's going to throw something different at each other," Shabaz said. "They were probably the best team that gave us a run for our money."\nThe Cavaliers' eventual 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory set up a rematch of the National Indoor Championship semifinals with Tennessee's Sandgren and Smith, the No. 2 doubles team in the country, which Virginia bested in the fall.\nFor the third time in the doubles championships, however, Virginia fell to a one-set deficit, needing to grab two sets in a row to win.\n"Going in to [the match] we felt good, but they came out on fire," Shabaz said. "They took care of us in the first set."\nShabaz believes the three-set format, different from the eight-game pro-set used in team competition all year long, favored the Virginia duo.\n"The better team usually wins in a longer match," Shabaz said.
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